I must confess that I engaged in a little strategic voting along the way. However, if it were up to me, I would have ranked them something like this:

Yagudin A great competitor who was able to deliver when it mattered, with style, class, and both artistic and technical ability that was close to the top. Maybe he wasn't the best in every single category of skills, but overall, he is clearly the best.Chan He has the best skating skills and very difficult technical content. He isn't quite there yet on interpretation and performance and execution, but he's higher up on my list than some very, very good skaters.Plushenko He does not appeal to my aesthetic, he apparently cannot incorporate transitions or decent choreography into his programs and still do all his big tricks, and, like many Russians, he has crappy sit spin positions, but his competitive record is formidable and, when he's on, he has the best jumps in the business.Lambiel A tough call between him and Takahashi, but I give him the not because he has much more artistic range. He is one of several skaters on this list who I feel did not fully live up to his potential.Takahashi If he were to win the next World Championship, I would rank him above Lambiel.Lysacek Another tough call, but I would rank him over Kulik simply because he achieved more, and his non-jump elements are better. If he had worked on fixing his triple axel a couple of seasons earlier, this would be an easier call.Kulik Too much of a flash in the pan for me to rank him any higher. Nice jumps and skating skills, though.Joubert He gets the nod over Buttle just because he was much more consistent at the championship level. Oh, and he's a better jumper too. In my book, though, he's the biggest underachiever of these twelve.Buttle The best of these at skating to music, which, on some level, is what the sport is all about. It's too bad he wasn't able to skate at the level he did in Gothenburg in 2008 more often.Stojko By far the biggest overachiever here. His skating skills, non-jump elements, and presentation are inferior to all the others on this list. But he won three World Championships. A couple of the others didn't win any. So he goes here.Eldredge Not much soul to his skating, but overall, his accomplishments are greater than Urmanov's.Urmanov On paper, his competitive record isn't that much weaker than Kulik's. But Kulik's actual programs are that much better. It's a pity that his injuries kept him from achieving more.

Ask me again in a few months, and I might come up with a very different ranking.

People need to get over their Chan hate. Also I am not Lysacek's biggest fan but the reaction he gets is absolutely insane.

I also find mens skating to be relatively weak especially compred to 1988 where we had the battle of the Brians. Post Plushenko era even though he is still around. No one has dominated.

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Nobody needs to get over anything - people are allowed to dislike Chan's skating, just as they are allowed to dislike anyone else's skating. Sometimes Chan's fans seem to think that he's the only skater who gets criticized, which is certainly not true. Though I for one can honestly said I did not try to vote him off at any point. Lysacek's record is built on consistency, for which he deserves a lot of credit, but there are more interesting and talented skaters in this list. I'd say he left right when he should have

That nobody has dominated (though one can argue Chan has, post-Vancouver) doesn't indicate that men's skating is weak, just that different skaters peak and skate well each time. That's the sign of a strong field; having one or two dominant skaters can be fun, but it doesn't mean the rest of the field is good.

Joubert He gets the nod over Buttle just because he was much more consistent at the championship level. Oh, and he's a better jumper too. In my book, though, he's the biggest underachiever of these twelve.

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That's interesting, because to me it seems that Joubert, despite not being considered the best skater in the field for most of his career, has achieved quite a lot. In his case it's just that he has medals rather than wins.

I'm not going to rank any of the skaters here, but I wouldn't have included Daisuke, Patrick, and Brian J. in this poll since they are still competing. I think they're all very talented (yes, I do think Patrick has been overscored in a number of competitions).

I am appalled at the level of hate/disrespect toward North American skaters here in general, and am sick of the merciless bashing against skaters like Todd & Evan, etc. Whether you like them or not, they are accomplished skaters with great work ethics (OK, I'll admit I'm not obsessed with quads, and could care less about them - there are so many more elements to a program than one blasted jump). Give me great spins (not contorted ones), Russian Split Jumps, music that a skater works into a memorable program, and I'm a happy camper.

FWIW, I still think that the greatest men's competition is "The Battle of the Brians" from the Calgary Olympics, and 2nd favorite, 1996 Worlds (the top four men were outstanding, particularly in the free skate - I felt so sad for Elvis when he had the mistakes in the short program, but was thrilled for his free skate).

I'm not going to rank any of the skaters here, but I wouldn't have included Daisuke, Patrick, and Brian J. in this poll since they are still competing.

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It's hard to know who is still competing and who isn't. Lysacek and Plushenko say they're competing this season, so I would have had to exclude them too. And, it's certainly possible that one of these five skaters will announce his retirement without doing another competition.

As it is, all anyone could do is rank them based on what they've done so far.

I'm not sure I would say BUttle had very poor jumping abilities. Ok he didn't have a quad, but his other triples were pretty strong with some issues on the 3A at times, but I think that's covered by consistency more than poor jumping abilities - his technique was pretty sound.

As others have pointed out, the overmarking is dont by the judges not the skater themselves so I'm not sure criticising a skater for what the judges do is particularly helpful when discussing their skills.

You're obviously even newer to figure skating than I am, and/or have no idea about the many elements that it consists of, including the technical elements and qualities. Even if Lambiel truly didn't have that 3A, it's just one of many elements. There are other skaters who don't have Lambiel's skating skills, have much weaker spins, not so good transitions (all part of technique), not to mention choreography, musicality, presentation and so on, and are still considered great skaters. As for Buttle and Chan, that was also answered by antmanb.

I'm not sure I would say BUttle had very poor jumping abilities. Ok he didn't have a quad, but his other triples were pretty strong with some issues on the 3A at times,

As others have pointed out, the overmarking is dont by the judges not the skater themselves so

Lambiel had the triple axel for several seasons and then struggled with it later on, but made up for it with the quad to compensate. He included a brilliant 3A in his 2005 SP when he won worlds.

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No quad, inconsistent 3A -- that's enough to be called a poor jumper in normal senses.

Because of overmarking, Chan's many "medals" should be considered as gifts from the judges. That's a factor can't be ignored.

Lambiel had no choice but to rely on his "quads". That was the sigh of his weakness, not strength. I think 2005 worlds was the lowest level competition for men since Kur Browning's era... and in 2006, Joubert would be the winner if there weren't qualifying rounds. Any of his "wins" and "medals" are not impressive.

Lambiel had no choice but to rely on his "quads". That was the sigh of his weakness, not strength. I think 2005 worlds was the lowest level competition for men since Kur Browning's era... and in 2006, Joubert would be the winner if there weren't qualifying rounds. Any of his "wins" and "medals" are not impressive.

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Eh, that's really a sign of weakness to rely on quads and most of time he had two of them in his FP, one of them in combination. Poor guy, no choice...